That was the combination of circumstances whereby Israel came to Tetuan.
Israel's first years in his strange office had satisfied his master entirely.

He had carried the Basha's seal and acted for him in all affairs of money.

The revenues had risen to fifty thousand dollars, so that the Basha had twenty thousand to the good.

Then Ben Aboo's ambition began to override itself.

He started an oil-mill, and wanted Israel to select a hundred houses owned by rich men, that he might compel each house to take ten kollahs of oil--an extravagant quantity, at seven dollars for each kollah--an exorbitant price.